Therapy Dogs
Ill men, women, young girls and boys all struggle to stay positive, they battle the darkness that creeps up on a daily basis. This may sound like no big deal, but when your health and even your life at times depend on your body and mind to heal, positivity is the best drug prescribed. How can you stay positive when life gives you so much pain? Well, sometimes you need help and a therapy dog may just do the trick. According to Dr. Barker (no pun intended) and Dr. Dawson, a therapy dog is a trained animal assisted therapist. The owner or handler of the dog is educated with proper ways to help the patient, and the dog follows the handlers command, adding a few extra tail wags for bonus points. In a recent study, 230 people with psychotic disorders and mood disorders and people, pre and post treatment patients, took a STAI or a State Trait Anxiety Inventory to understand the levels each person felt before the experiment. They were each visited once by the peppy little fellow and had a full session with proper treatment for the day and left. Statistics showed significant reductions in the anxiety. There was a drawback though, as the visits continued on a routine basis, studies also showed it reduced the state of anxiety for hospitalized patients with psychiatric illness, but the continued routine visits for people with the mood disorders didn’t continue to progress with less anxiety levels. The experiment explained is for serious cases of course, sometimes children just need a moment to relax and smile. This was the case at the Ronald McDonald house in Wauwatosa, WI. Bella a fluffily golden dog came for a visit and the children were able to forget their current problems, including me. All of us pet the dog and for that moment of peace, the happiness made me at least find more hope in life. I said to myself “This moment I am smiling and laughing, I want that throughout my life, and I want to get my life, back” And I did, the proof being is that now I’m an early admit